CLEVELAND, Miss.—We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday.
Eighteen. Effie Ales-Sledge was 18 years old when she and around 50 other Black students at Delta State College—now Delta State University—were bused nearly 25 miles away to Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and forced to stay on death row. That came after a large group of Black students organized a peaceful sit-in outside of the president’s office in Kethley Hall on March 10, 1969.
The Black students at the college arranged the sit-in to discuss the 10 demands that they had for then-president James M. Ewing. These demands included respect in the classroom, equity in grading, better scholarship opportunities, inclusion in campus activities and the hiring of Black faculty and staff members.
“We were sitting in the hallway, and once we were asked to leave, we did not budge,” Ales-Sledge said.
After being denied these requests, the participants continued to stay outside of the president’s office, maintaining their demands for a better learning environment. As a result, the police were called to the college and the protesting students were arrested for disturbing the peace. Fifty-two students were taken to the state penitentiary and placed on death row that night.
On the way to Parchman, they sang songs of resistance.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe. We shall overcome someday.
Ales-Sledge, a newly married college junior majoring in social work, sat on death row at Parchman.
“We were frightened. We were afraid. We were singing and all of that, and we got through the night. The next day, they told us that we were gonna go.” Ales-Sledge told the Mississippi Free Press on Mar. 10.
We are not afraid. We are not afraid. We are not afraid today.
The students were released from the prison the next day on bail as a result of the community pooling money together by selling the deeds to their homes.
“We had been released. We got on the bus and came back. I guess someone had put their land up. I got my stuff, loaded up, and I got the bat out of hell,” Ales-Sledge said.
Seven years later, the fruits of their activism came into fruition. In 1976, Georgene Clark became Delta State’s first Black faculty member, teaching English.
Oh, deep in my heart. I do believe. We shall overcome someday.
Reconciling the Past
Forty years later, Clark, assistant professor emeritus of English at Delta State University, found meeting notes about the sit-in and the arrest of the Black students in an old filing cabinet one day. She started asking around the university and the community about the events of the March 10, 1969, sit-in. After researching with the university’s archivist at the time, Emily Jones, the two were able to find out what happened.
In an effort to celebrate the increased diversity at Delta State, Clark wanted to incorporate the participants of the sit-in by having an exhibit with pictures. When she presented the idea of the exhibit to then-president John Hilpert, he was adamant about inviting as many participants as possible back to the university for an in-person celebration.
“I told him about (the idea). I told him what had happened, and I told him what I had found so far, but we were still looking. He was intrigued, so he said, ‘Let’s get them back. Invite them back,” she said.
In 2008, the school invited the participants back for a celebration to honor their bravery and activism during such a pivotal time in the school’s history. They also paid homage to the students with a plaque outside the former president’s office, Kethley Hall, signifying where it all began.
“I cannot ever thank them enough for having done so, because as I said, it’s on their shoulders that I stood for a lot of years,” Clark said on Mar. 10
Marking History
On March 10, 2026, more than five decades after the famous sit-in, the participants were invited back to Delta State University for the unveiling of a marker sponsored by the Mississippi Freedom Trail.
Daniel J. Ennis, president of Delta State University, spoke about his appreciation of the marker being placed outside of Kethley Hall and the importance of the marker to history. While Kethley Hall is now an elementary school for local children, Ennis is glad that the students are able to walk past the marker and know of the events of the institution’s history.
“As a bonus, hundreds of schoolchildren, who enter this building every day, will walk by this sign and they’ll know that they are learning on sacred ground… It gives an occasion to celebrate and soberly consider the events of 1969 on this campus,” Ennis said.
Mandy Truman, the director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State, spoke about working on the project to preserve and commemorate the history of the 1969 sit-in with faculty members Charles Westmoreland and Michelle Johansen.
“This history really did go unacknowledged for so long. I was just frustrated for them. They were able to get together and organize this brave act that made so much change, but nobody talked about it for 40 years,” Truman told the Mississippi Free Press on Mar. 10.
“It’s been a bit of a piecemeal project because before I arrived here. Dr. Charles Westmoreland and Michelle Johansen had already started digging into this history and contacting participants. So they did all the legwork,” Truman added.
Kammie Carpenter, Visit Mississippi’s chief sales officer, expressed her appreciation for the actions behind the marker newly added to the Mississippi Freedom Trail.
“Thank you to the courageous students of the past for everything you did. Thank you to Delta State University for preserving and honoring the important part of its campus history. Thank you to the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Humanities Council for their continued support in helping share Mississippi’s rich and complex stories,” Carpenter said.
Maggie Crawford, a sit-in participant, invited other participants in the audience to stand and be recognized while also paying tribute to a student who lost her baby in 1969 activism.
“I want to just mention one person that’s not here, and if anybody deserves to be here, it’s this one person. Her name is Joanne Anderson Wynne. Joanne participated, and she was a newly wedded person, and she was pregnant at the time, and she lost her baby in this struggle. So, I’d like to just say her name. Will you say it with me? Joanne Anderson,” Crawford said.
John Spann, the director of strategic initiatives for the Mississippi Humanities Council, ended the ceremony with the unveiling of the marker and a picture with the participants of the 1969 sit-in.
While Delta State University has experienced a tumultuous past, it continues to rectify the mistakes made in history by being the most diverse public institution in the state of Mississippi, with 45% of its student population being Black. Almost half of the institution’s faculty members are Black as well.
Though Effie Ales-Sledge did not finish her program at Delta State University due to her 1969 arrest, she was determined to receive her degree. She re-enrolled at the university in 1970 and received her degree.
“I’m thankful to God that I hung in there,” Ales-Sledge said.
